Thanks all for all the posts. I learnt something from each of these. However I still cannot compile ruby on ubuntu. Strangely it compiles easily on debian ?! I posted a question on the ubuntu compiling forum thinking that that is more suitable for compiling ruby on ubuntu than the ruby-forum. However since there is no reply I am cross-posting (the link) here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=389055 I should also mention that I tried Thomas Popisek's debuild approach which also didn't work. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.